Outdoor drives are power controllers for heavy outdoor use. Typically, outdoor drives contain power modules that are housed in cabinets in order to protect the modules from the external elements. Such outdoor drives are used to power equipment at sites in harsh environments with temperatures ranging from cold arctic environments to hot desert environments. Such sites include, but are not limited to, oil well sites.
Power modules typically contain sensitive electronics that are required for the outdoor drive to work. The electronic components are prone to overheating and must be cooled in order to prevent damage. One common design is to connect the electronic components to a heatsink placed in the power module. Specifically, such designs often connect the evaporator portion of the heatsink to the electronic components and leave the condenser portion exposed to the air inside of the cabinet. This allows the heat to be drawn out of the electronic components, into the heatsink, then into the air in the cabinet.
Such designs often require air from outside of the cabinet to be drawn across the heatsink to ensure that relatively cooler air is in contact with the heatsink. This, in turn, requires air from outside of the cabinet to be drawn through the power module. After passing through the condenser portion of the heatsink, the air often is exhausted to the outside of the cabinet.